1) Harangody Breakout!!! - As I was scanning the scoreboard of last night's action, one thing jumped out at me "Players of the Game ND - L. Harangody". Miracle of miracles, looks like someone finally emailed Mike Brey a www.kenpom.com link. "Cool Hand Luke" got 30 minutes and rewarded the coach with 21 pts 13 rbs (though it took him 19 shots to get there, i'll give him a break in his first outing). Harangody helped the Irish hang 61 pts on Cuse in the first half in an NBA style 103 91 win.
2) ACC Parity - FSU upended Maryland at home 96-79, this wasn't a huge upset, but this Maryland team has fallen a long way from their early season form. Also, Wake Forest beat GT at home in a much larger upset. This gives Wake its 2nd in conference win and slides GT closer to the "work left to do" category of bubble watch.
And-1) Aggie Report - OK, here it is, the end-all be-all analysis of the Texas A&M Aggies with a Kansas game prediction. Their schedule is somewhat vague in terms of telling you how they're actually doing. They've lost three acceptable games LSU, UCLA, TTech, (two by 3 pts or less), but outside of these games their wins are fairly weak, @Auburn, OK St, OU, and Winthrop all at home. Its hard to judge a team with close games against big teams and little else, therefore much will likely be made of their Kansas game this weekend, this is also the reason their Cons is weak (311). Also, they have a strong defensive rating (4th) but against offensively bad offensive competition (209th). However, on offense they pass the ball as well as anyone (3rd A/FGM) and get most of their points inside the arch (54.8%). They don't go very deep, with their minutes being fairly top heavy (rotation looks to go 6.5 deep with man #7 getting 26% PT). However, 4 of their 5 starters contribute offensively and they have Josh Carter at 133 ORtg. Now here's the prediction. I'll give the edge to Kansas, which I'd even predict at a neutral site, but the Phog Allen crowd will only help matters. The Jayhawks are deeper and play solid enough defense to win the game and get a leg up in the Big 12, though don't judge this Aggie team by a sole loss. They may not have the heart to pull this one out, but they'll be a dangerous team come tournament time if their defense meshes just a little more. Since they don't get a true home and home series, they'll have to hunt for revenge in the Big 12 Tourney.
Results
Illinois 57 Mich St. 50 - Old fashioned Big 10 barn-burner. Why is it that on the CBS website its "Big Ten" but "Big 12"?
Schedule
Miami @ UNC
Knicks @ Bobcats
OSU @ Purdue
Wisconsin @ Indiana - interesting road test, chance for Hoosiers to make some noise
Mizzou @ KState
Texas @ TTech - both teams with "work left to do", could be interesting
UConn @ Depaul - can the Huskies stop the bleeding or is it too late?
Gonzaga @ Stanford - hmmm, tastier than a chinese buffet
1 comment:
A couple of points:
Kenpom AdjD takes into account opponents' Offensive Efficiency. Even though A&M's opponents' OE is 209th, A&M has handled them SO well that they're ranked 4th overall defensively (adjusted). If you'll notice, their raw defensive rank is #1. Because their competition has been so weak, they take a hit and drop to #4 adjusted.
Also, some stylistic references say one should write out anything one through ten, but write anything higher than 11 in numerical form. The current AP style, however, is one through nine / 10+. That's the reason for the discrepancy.
Post a Comment